B O I B Y E ( 2 0 1 6 )

THE END OF 2016 IN PICTURES:

The Americana 

 

FIRST PAID TV JOB IN LA!

 

Our first Christmas tree

 

 Our FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

 

Universal Studios Hollywood 

Meal prep-age

H E L L O  2 0 1 7

 

2016 was crazy. scary. terrifying. daunting. wonderful. fantastic. too much. whack. life-changing.

We have so much hope for this coming year.

Fitness life.

Professional life.

Personal life.

B.T. dubs, I'm turning 25 this year.  AHHHH.

If you're reading this, feel free to check out my fitness instagram @foodie_and_fittie because that's one of main goals of the year.  Me in a freaking bikini on my 25th birthday. ;)

I'll mention more of my fitness growth in a later post and how BBG has changed me so much. 

Ahh. 2017, please be goood. 

La La Land

Mickey and I got free tickets to see La La Land yesterday 

night in Downtown LA and we were super pumped!

I went ahead of time and stood in line for 

a while as the line grew and grew and then Mickey met up with me.

We haven't really been able to stop and enjoy the view in LA 

at night since we don't really work in that area and it was so nice to be able to do so. 

As for the movie, SO FREAKING GOOD.  

Highly recommend watching it. 

So inspirational as well, especially watching from LA.

It's so difficult, most of the time, to just go for your dreams because of fears.

Fears of failing.  Fears of not being good enough. Fears of wasting your time.

Since we've moved out here, it's been a real life-lesson to me that although most people would quit, I just C A N N O T see myself doing anything else but working in the entertainment industry.  I've come close to finding a seriously good job and I'm certainly not giving up. 

We felt so inspired by this movie and I feel like the same thing will happen when people watch it. 

After the movie ended, we ditched Yelp to see

 where to eat and decided to be spontaneous and just walk around. 

That's when we ran into this beauty!

Sometimes when you don't plan things, the best things happen.  

You can quote me on that. ;)

So, here's to me letting go and seeing where God wants me!

P.S. Just made a new food blog.  

Totally a long time coming, since I'm that kind 

of person that takes pictures of her food.  I'm 

super proud of it and will continue growing it. 

You can click on the tab above where it says "Foodie & Fittie" or click here! 

My Mamasita's Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOMMY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! AND MANY MOREEEE!!!

ESTAS SON LAS MANANITAS QUE CANTABA EL REY DAVID, HOY POR SER DIA DE TU SANTO TE LAS CANTAMOS A TI! DESPIERTA MAMI DESPIERTA MIRA QUE YA AMANECIO, YA LOS PAJARITOS CANTAN LA LUNA YA SE METIO!

Happy Birthday Mama! 

I love you and miss you so much baby! I hope you're doing well and having fun! I hope you're having some watermelon, some amazing tacos maybe even some shrimp! I'll get some kind of seafood today for you baby! Also, as you may know, I've been listening to the Neil Diamond station on Pandora and his CD in the car! Also, I hope you liked Mickey and I cleaning the car inside and out! 

He looks good and smells good!

I know it took me forever to do it but I finally recorded "My Heart Will Go On" like you had asked me to.  I will improve it some more and record it properly but I thought I could do something small and meaningful for you on your birthday. 

As you know, this time last year I was going to apply for graduation! Here I am a year later, a first generation college graduate, working at the chapel (for three years) and working as a Production Assistant (for about three months)! I've been on the cover of a local magazine and been on television more than once! I hope everything's that has happened has made you happy baby, I wish I could share in all these exciting times with you but I know you're telling everybody up there about this and our lives. 

I hope you've been enjoying Mama Mondays! People really seem to like them and I've been having a blast sharing everything you've taught me. 

I love you mama and I miss you tremendously but I love knowing that you're spending your birthday with your mamasita.  Say hi to everybody for me! Oh and to any famous people up there! 

Thank you for watching over me and taking care of me.  I will be okay today.  After work at the chapel, Mickey and I will celebrate your birthday! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! I LOVE YOU!

This song will always remind me of you. 

Love, 

your very lucky daughter,

Amy

Our Second Anniversary ❤️

It's absolutely crazy to me that Mickey and I have been together for two years now.  

I feel like we just met and it's just insane to me!
Aahhh! Anyway, here are the mushy details of this wonderful day!
{Here's a throwback of our first anniversary!}

March 18, 2012 feels like just yesterday. :)

I woke up and exercised! I've been running for 30 minutes every other day and I was so glad I exercised that day because we stuffed our faces later (hehe).

Mickey and I went to Pei Wei for lunch!
YUM.
He'd been craving those lettuce wraps and I was craving lo-mein!
I thought about this after the fact but I think we've made
it a thing to eat Chinese food on our anniversary! No complaints! :)
Oh and we a snicker doodle cookie there! Is that normal?
They had snicker doodle cookies at the cash register, so, you know,
of course we couldn't pass those up!

We did not finish our lo-mein or the lettuce wraps so we definitely had tons of leftovers (yum!)
We did, of course, save room for fortune cookies.

Mickey's fortune read as follows:
"It is sometimes better to travel hopefully than to arrive."

Mine read as follows:
"No need to worry.  You will always have everything that you need."

We exchanged presents at Pei Wei and then at his house.
Mickey got me pearl earrings and a freaking $50 gift card to Target!!!!! #happycamper
I got him film cells of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a Breaking Bad poster, a picture from graduation that I had to order online, and a jar of memories (inspired by Pinterest!)

We then watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off!
An annual tradition on our anniversary!

This part never gets old. #twistandshout

We then got ready to go downtown!
Time kind of flew by and we left a bit later than planned but that didn't stop us!

First stop: Carriage ride!



Thank you Ginger!
It was awesome! Perfect weather! Perfect carriage!
Wonderful stories from the ladies guiding us!

We then went to Rainforest Cafe to recreate our first date! It was so cool! We talked about our first date and how it was like our city threw us a party! Bands were playing downtown, there was so much going on and so much music! It was amazing! :)




And then of course, we had to show off our nice watches that fit the both us perfectly.
We're classy and we know it.
 ;)



We ordered two burgers with fries and then shared a Coke float.
I love how we can be super dressy and still eat burgers and fries.
That's how we roll.

We then walked around a bit downtown and took pictures around the area we were the first time we took pictures on our first date!

Our night in a nutshell!!! :)

 

Thank you for these amazing two years.  I'm so freakishly happy and I owe it all to you Mickey.  Thank you for being the syrup to my waffle.  Thank you for being goofy with me and for teaching me stuff.  Thank you for being patient with me when I'm a buttface.  Thank you for being spontaneous and making me brave.  Thank you for being you.  I'm so excited for what this year brings! 

I love you from the bottom of my heart! 

Play Analysis, TV Practicum & Law and the Media

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm so proud of how I've been managing my time lately. 

Toot Toot! 

{that's me tooting my own horn}

I left the house pretty early on Tuesday because Mickey and I wanted to get breakfast tacos (yum) but it didn't work out exactly as planned because traffic got in the way but don't worry, we did get breakfast tacos after all, even if they were from our school's smoothie place. 

(they were goood)

9am

Play Analysis

Pretty interesting class! 

Mickey and I already started reading the first play together and it was so much fun!! We did it in different voices and everything.  Yes. We're awesome.  ;)

It seems like it's gonna be a fun class!  I'm excited

We had the tacos & other munchies.

(Geez, I love food.)

[sidenote: current weight loss amount is 22lbs! What up! Mickey's is 52 lbs! So proud of us!]

12pm

TV Practicum

OMG. I'm so pumped!

I can't wait to volunteer and learn so much and be infront of the camera 

and behind the camera and running the teleprompter and doing all of that really 

cool stuff again and having so much fun...aaahhhh! I'm so excited!

Oh btw, we got free t-shirts advertising our campus tv station! 

(I was like the second one in line to get free souvenirs. #dork)

:)

Mickey and I are already volunteering for a basketball game! Whooohoo!

Let's just say, having this ginormous break from 1:15-basically 5:45pm is new to me. 

 It was really weird because it felt like a different day but

I think it's just something to get used to. 

 You know?

6pm

Law and the Media (dun dun dun)

Okay, so this is all Comm Arts people's most difficult and dreaded class so I was okay for being a bit nervous about it. 

We chose a different teacher because it fit our schedule better but yikes! 

She is a graduate from our university and was taught by the other Law and the Media teacher. 

 She uses his same handouts and way of teaching but I'm 

hopeful even after the scaring she did to us. 

Heck, I'm my mother's daughter, 

I've got determination and this class ain't kicking my butt. 

2 sidenotes:

[1. Our teacher and her husband met in the Comm Arts department and even took the class together.  She was talking about how they'd compete with each other and stuff and it was SO CUTE. Call me cheesy but this totally reminded me of Mickey and me.  ♥]

[2. Speaking of my momma, my aunt found some Christmas ornaments as she was moving stuff around and they had my mom and my name on each one.  It was almost like a little sweet surprise from my momma.  I know she's really proud and watching over me every day, especially this new week of classes.  I love you sweet, darling momma!]

The night concluded with getting some things done, which included getting Starbucks with this freaking amazing weather and catching up with an old friend and starting a routine for Tuesday nights.  :)

As far as today, well, that's for another time!

Hope y'all are doing well this week!

Be fearless.

I realized after I posted last time that I, in fact, did have a resolution last year! It was to 

"try new things, be fearless." 

I don't know about the fearless part but I know I've certainly tried

 new things. Mickey, as I mentioned in our 6 months post, has been there

 for me for a while and he's helped me so much this past year 

with this resolution without him even knowing it.  

It's freaking amazing having your best friend and boyfriend in one person.  

So these past couple of days I've been looking at my Pinterest boards and trying to organize them and looked a lot at my bucket list and I'm proud to say that I'm completing some of them! 

So, in list form, I will talk about {accidentally} fulfilling my 2012 New Year's Resolution!

(I may have mentioned a few of these previously, but there are tons of new ones!)

-Stopped drinking soda!

*It's been a year since I've had soda!*

-Went to a club

-{Danced with a nice stranger at said club}

-Fun fun fun!

-Mickey and I had Chicken and Waffles.
{My first time}

-Participated with television-related stuff at school

-Mickey's 21st birthday!

-Got confirmed

After lots of money that's for sure!

-Mickey and I were going to go there for our first date together but God had much better plans. ;)
We went there eventually!

-Filed taxes by myself

-Got oil change for Anderson {my car} by myself 

-Baked something from scratch

-Became a server

-Learned to drive on highways

-Flown on a plane by myself
{Mickey and I both did that separately but for the first time}

-Mickey and I tried vegan food and here are a few more:

   

I know there are tons more but I just wanted to show how many new things I did this year and how I feel that this resolution is one that many of us can try! 

Lastly, and most importantly, this one happened.

I love you Mickey.  Thank you for making me the happiest girl in the world. 

Vegan

Mickey and I have been wanting to try new things, so today, we did just that.  We had heard of a vegan restaurant fairly close by and decided to give it a try today after our last class of the day.  What's the verdict on this vegan restaurant? I'd say 8/10! :)

Mickey ordered two vegan chili dogs with coconut cilantro rice (the rice was to die for!!) The chili dogs smelled funny but, get this, they make their own buns! Mickey liked it. :) I ordered Garbanzo-rizo and Zuchinni tacos with black beans and corn chips.  Both meals came with a small salad that was a bit spicy but tasty! My tacos were SO good!!! 

It was hard to find this location but it was definitely well-worth it.  There weren't many people when we walked in but it started filling up as time went on.  The two servers there were nice.  It was cool to see that they decorated with Dia de los Muertos stuff, they even had an altar dedicated to someone.  They had some Mexican decorations too.  

I loved going with Mickey because even though we were a bit apprehensive, we still tried it.  I love that we can be so spontaneous and try new things like a vegan restaurant.  We help each other become better.  It's freaking amazing.  

So, next time you judge something or feel apprehensive, make sure to think about it and try new things! You'll never know what you will discover! I know, that's super cheesy but it's completely true! I've got those wonderful tacos and that rice to prove it! :) I think my mom would've loved this place's food!!!

Mickey's plate! 

                                      

My plate!

By the way, my respects to all you vegans out there.  Although we loved eating this amazing vegan food, we love meat too much and dairy and such to eat only vegan food but it was a wonderful experience! We're definitely going back to try some other plates!! I'm curious about their burger and tamales and other sides! 

Lots of catching up!

Yum! 

So I've experienced the typical college thing of not having enough time, which is why I have not been able to blog for a while. With that being said, there's a lot to catch up on! List time again!

-Thanksgiving wasn't that bad. It was kinda nice, we played Mexican Train game with my aunt's and uncle's neighbors and their family.  I did have a baby meltdown before but it was fine, I moved on.
-Finals are next week! I'm a bit stressed but thankful everything else in my life is okay.
-We have our Fall Concert this Sunday.  (Choir) I'm a bit worried about it because it's my first concert without her.  I really miss her guys.  It's difficult sometimes to explain the pain I feel when it really hurts but I guess I'm doing fine.
-I got some stuff from these two stores and they are amazing!
-I'm trying a lot of new things lately, it's pretty wonderful to be able to do stuff spontaneously.  For example, this week alone, I went to a workshop with this advertising company, I went to a dress rehearsal of my school's production of A Christmas Carol and a friend's wedding after party thing (we're in Italian together and we did this amazing oral exam and made a video and everyone laughed, it was magnificent!).  Everything was pretty much spur of the moment kind of thing! It was nice.
-I know y'all have been drooling over the picture of Tiramisu.  Today some of my friends and I went to this one restaurant (it was amazing!) and my friend got Tiramisu and we shared a bit! Fact: I don't like sweets.  Desert.  Chocolate.  None of it.  But, Tiramisu is one of those things that are just TO DIE FOR! Seriously, it's amazing! If you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend it!
-My friend let me borrow his copy of 500 Days of Summer and OH MY GOODNESS! So adorable, sweet, and fantastic! I loved it! I strongly recommend this movie! I mean, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel? Yeah, so wonderful!
-We moved out of the "new apt".  It was pretty difficult because I kept on thinking about all the things that didn't happen.  All the opportunities we had that aren't needed or going to be used anymore.  It's been a bit over two months and there are still moments when I think she's still alive.  Not gonna lie, it sucks.
-The other day I wanted to get an extra copy of my ad for my WFTM class and I thought in my head "Yeah, get another one so you can show your mom".  Then I stopped myself because obviously, it's not true.
-I feel like she's happy though, you know? She's seeing me live my life and learn things on my own.  I make decisions, I make plans and most importantly, I plan about New York and my future.  <3
-Today I saw two tarantulas! YES, MY FRIENDS, that's right.  TWO!!!!!! If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of insects, bugs, etc.  I mean, butterflies scare me! That's how weird this phobia is for me so it was amazing I didn't run screaming!  I was thrown off by the first one though.  That's for sure.
-I feel like I'm missing stuff but I got the highlights.  I wanted to add more pictures but it isn't working.  Oh well, maybe next time!

Happy last week of school for my fellow peeps! Haha. Just kidding.

The first 24.

So, some of y'all may have heard/read that my mom passed away yesterday [Sept. 26] night making this the first of my new kind of blog posts.  I won't be talking as much about cancer, disease, death, chemo, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities.  I can almost hear the relief in y'all. JK. So here is what I think is important to know.

The last few days of my mom's life weren't the best.  I had a feeling yesterday that it was time.  I won't go into the details because I don't want those to be the ones I remember her by but I'll say one thing: I was holding her hand when it happened.  I thanked her several times for being MY MOM, and for being such a great one and that I would make her proud and that everything would be okay.  This experience has been the BIGGEST life-changer in my life.  I feel at peace.  Yes, I do get sad at times but it's wonderful to know my mom is having a blast in heaven with my grandma, my great-grandpa and all my other brothers and sisters.  I do wish she would come in my dreams though, that would be awesome. I am not even as depressed or sad as I thought I would be and I'm very proud of myself for that.  So, with that being said, here is what I did today.

Now that I will be living with my aunt and uncle (my mom's friends of more than 30 years) I will have to get used to a new lifestyle.  One of them being, my aunt doesn't cook. At all. I can though! Well, anyway the cooking will come later but she likes going out for breakfast the majority of the time. So today we were looking for a restaurant to get breakfast that I would likely never go to again because I didn't want depressing memories.  Then we ate there.  After that, my aunt and I went shopping for my mom's "viewing clothes".  Then at 3pm we had the appt with the funeral director.  That was weird but…and here is sign number one from my momma.  My mom used to play the mandolin and I played/will play the violin.  About 10 seconds after we arrived there we saw (in the flower shop inside) two statues: an angel playing the mandolin and an angel playing the violin!! Crazy right? So we will have those in the chapel at the funeral home. I won't go into great detail with everything else but let me just say that it is going to be beautiful. After that, my aunt, uncle (who had gone to the funeral home also with us) and I all went to Olive Garden. [I had Seafood Alfredo…YUM!!!].  Anyway, after that we returned to their house and then later we saw Parenthood.  I was able to convince them to watch it!

Things have not been so bad.  My aunt and uncle and friends and family have been so supportive.  I wanted to thank y'all for supporting me during this time.  Alex, if you are reading this, thank you for everything. My aunt wants me to get my new room decorated to my liking which is very nice.

I'm getting sleepy but I just wanted to say thank you all for all the prayers and everything.  I will try to blog pretty frequently to not hang on to anything.